Exercise 2. Rephrasing is an extremely important tool while making a summary. Study the following examples

Summary and Abstaract Writing

Summary – is a brief statement or account of the main points of something.

· When do we need summaries?

· What does it comprise?

· Are there any rules of writins it? Name them.

· Look at a figure. Discuss it. Make a list of 5 important things about summaries. Rank them in the order of importance. Compare your result with that of other students.

If we are to present a drawing of the process of writing a summary it would look as follows.

Exercise 1. Read the following article. Which of these statements best summarises the point the article is making?

1. A comet clashed with the Sun.

2. Skywatchers are desperate about missing a naked-eye view of a comet.

3. Astronomical devices have noticed the passage of a comet in immediate vicinity with the Sun and a consequent collapse of the former.[*]

1. People whose professional activity lies in the field of politics are not, on the whole, conspicuous for their respect for factual accuracy. – Politicians often lie.

2. Failure to assimilate an adequate quantity of solid food over an extended period of time is absolutely certain to lead, in due course, to a fatal conclusion. – If you do not eat, you die.

3. The climatic conditions prevailing in the British Isles show a pattern of alternating and unpredictable periods of dry and wet weather, accompanied by a similarly irregular cycle of temperature changes. – British weather is changeable.

4. It is undeniable that the large majority of non-native learners of English experience a number of problems in attempting to master the phonetic patterns of the language. – Many learners find English pronunciation difficult.

5. Tea, whether of the China or Indian variety, is well known to be high on the list of those beverages which are most frequently drunk by the inhabitants of the British Isles. – The British drink a large amount of tea.

6. It is not uncommon to encounter sentences which, though they contain a great number of words and are constructed in a highly complex way, none the less turn out on inspection to convey very little meaning of any kind. – Some long and complicated sentences mean very little.

7. One of the most noticeable phenomena in any big city, such as London or Paris, is the steadily increasing number of petrol-driven vehicles, some in private ownership, others belonging to the public transport system, which congest the roads and render rapid movement more difficult year by year. – Big cities have growing traffic problems.

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